In a Interview to the online media MBL.is the Icelandic prime minster Geir H. Haarde said that unprocessed loans from other countries are stopping the IMF finalising its loan to Iceland, not political pressure from other EU countries.
According to news there have been rumours that the IMF is being pressured by some EU nations to not process the loan until Iceland has agreed to the terms made by the UK and the Netherlands in regards to the Icesave accounts.
“I do not believe that the IMF will be used in such political way,” said Haarde. “And if true, you will need to tell me twice before I believe it“.
“We would rather cancel the IMF loan than be treated like that. Iceland needs help but we will not be black mailed.“
“The conflict between the UK and Iceland is unsolved and is one of the worst crisis between countries that Iceland has had to deal with in my memory and it’s really frustrating that the nation has been put into this hardship because of the actions of a private company,“ said the prime minister. “There is a big gap between the two countries in regards of how much accountability Iceland should be taking on in this case.“
When asked about the funds put into the Icesave accounts this week by the UK government and the announcement of Alistair Darling that UK had loaned Iceland money, the Icelandic prime minister said: “Iceland has not agreed to any loans and will not under these conditions. We will need to have a mutual agreement on it or solve it through the EU judicial system”.
“We have been a member of the IMF for some 63 years and have the same rights as other nations to be heard and dealt with in a just manner.”
“If we do not get the loan from the IMF Iceland will not be bankrupt, Iceland has always paid its debts and will keep on doing so,” he said.
Hi there, constantly i used to check weblog posts here in
the early hours in the daylight, because i love to learn more and more.
Axel,
“Darling said the Icelandic government had told him they would not pay according to the compensation scheme”
Not true, I’m afraid — see the transcript in my previous email. The minister said:
“I CANNOT visibly state that or GUARANTEE that now”
Regarding fishing, in this case mackerel:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/scotland/7720234.stm
So the Icelandic government was not able to: control its banking system;
it was also not able to control fishing (at least mackerel).
There is no doubt that majority of Icelanders are hardworking. However, a small minority have decided to take on huge risks. Some of the risks were underwritten by the government. As it can be clearly seen now the risks were totally worth it though. The risk takers made fortunes in multimillion salaries in recent years.
There is also the downside that the great majority of the nation will suffer economic hardship.
Oh, and the Icelandic government continous to be in total denial about any wrong doing. After all it is all a conspiracy … For related topics see also:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GuwyY2DzO2I
John,
there are a few things that point to that direction
for exaple, britain are demanding compensation to be paid immidietly inspite of knowing we cant pay unless we sell the banks assets, that we cant do because its frozen and they seem to be able to do with it what they want,
when this started Darling said the Icelandic government had told him they would not pay according to the compensation scheme, that was a lie, regardless of what has happend since then,
Brown said the day after that all Icelandic assets in the UK would be seized by the British government, that was a lie and you need to be very simple to think it was told by assident,
that comment was extreamly destructive to our economy as one could imagine,
now they are offering some sort of deal and making sure we can not say no by forcing IMF to step back
wich they have,
Iceland is a very interesting place in many ways
for one we have endless amounts of all kinds of natural resoucess that every one knows are of grate value, like large fishing stocks, endless amounts of drinking water, thermal and hydro power
we have only harvested a small fraction of what we can do, and recently diskovered oil prospect, the biggest one is believed to be similar size as the Norwegian one, six internatonal oilcompanys have already sent experts here to research, its very likely that oil can be found in the east fjords
if that is correct it may even be on land,
we are not in the EU nor do we intend to join
so we are on our own, i dont really know what to make of this but i suspect the british are asking for some kind of guaranty in return for the loan
lets say we accept it, the IMF steps in and controls our economy, and UK controls IMF as we have recently seen, we may somehow end up joining the EU, it may seem smart given the status of the Krona, the EU then has control over our resouces and econmomy and all kinds of deals can be made,
we seem to be a little to rich, a little to defenceless , a bit to small and comfortably remote
we can not rely on the nordic nations simply because its not in there interest to help, so why should they ?
so its basically Iceland vs UK, may the better country win
“the British plan is to force Iceland to sign a deal to pay the damages requested by UK and then sell off all Icelandic assets for pennys to kill us off for good,”
Axel, I realize what a predicament you are in, but this is sheer paranoia! Why should Britain want to “kill Iceland off”? And they’re not “damages”, they’re compensation payments guaranteed by your own government.
Axel, Iceland is bankrupt in all but name,
Financially destitute unable to pay debts, except that nobody has come in to take over the land.
or what is your definition of bankrupt?
Im not going anywhere, no matter what happens
Iceland isnt going bankrupt, this is only a
setback, we will be back on our feet in no time,
so what if we loose a few thousand people
we will just have to get them back,
Iceland was built by tough people, it takes alot more than this ruin this country,
007….. you are SO right…. that’s the way it is right now – and that’s the way it’s gonna be.
And people are very afraid…. afraid of their own future and the future of their children.
I hope very much that the country will get help very very soon.
The reality of life for most Icelanders is that they woke up one morning having lost their hard-earned savings of years with the fall of their banks. Their mortgages and other loans are now skyrocketing from the “previously low” 10% APR rate to 20-30%. Their workplaces are closing down and they are losing their jobs in masses. And they get hate-mails on the web.
These are people who did not do anything to deserve this, just went about their daily work and paid their bills as everyone else. Just like the IceSave depositors in the UK and Netherlands.
If faced with years of excessive hardship lots of people will simply pack up and emigrate to other countries. Having lost everything already, there is little point staying to pay the gambling debts of the high flying bankers.
This is the reality facing the common Icelander today.
The same video as above on youtube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XyS-bOuCjec&NR=1
look at the comments
another cool video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pa4j62gk8aE
it will be interesting to see what happens next weekend,
im guessing David Oddson vill resign before the end of the month
im sure there will be an election in the spring
if that happens the Geirs independence party will loose alot of support,
its quite possible that we would be better off without IMF, without IMF there is no help from the Nordic countrys or anyone else,
my personal view, to hell with IMF and EU
we will just have to survive this somehow
we have seen worse, and were still here
@Paul. if there are two pauls posting i might of been thinking of him when i posted that. i was mainly annoyed with the first two posters.i apologise.
I am British and have been living in Iceland for over 20 years. i love iceland and know it has plenty of faults, and i own a 11 year old car and a house that needs work im not in debt. i havent lived the ‘boom’ years (i dont even own a flat screen anything!) in iceland as i dont live in reykjavik so it gets me slightly annoyed when people come down on icelanders so hard.
AÞB, you say I should not believe the British Press. Hmm. Should I believe the Icelandic Press? I read both and am married to an Icelander. Don’t be presumptive. By the way, there are two ‘Paul’s posting on here so it may get confusing – I’m the one who loves Iceland, but hates nationalism, and hates the fact that many Icelanders and the Icelandic Govt thought the ridiculous boom was going to last forever and that companies run by a small cartel of families should have been allowed to grow unregulated.
Bromley86
the protest
http://aftaka.org/2008/11/08/anrakistar-althingi-bonus/
a few pictures of the protest in front of the parliament building
http://aftaka.org/2008/11/08/anrakistar-althingi-bonus/
the guy on the roof managed to escape after some people fought the police to get the ladder and rescue him, he ran, jumped over a wall and disapeared,
i really dont know what to say about this whole banking mess, its hard to know anymore who is telling the truth and who isn’t
Britain now says they are not against IMF assisting Iceland, i dont believe that
i dont know anyone who does,
the British plan is to force Iceland to sign a deal to pay the damages requested by UK and then sell off all Icelandic assets for pennys to kill us off for good,
the reason for all this is a bit more complicated
maybe it has to do with the “Circle of prosparity”
and the independance of Scotland
or the fact that Sagex Petrolium Norway has diskovered a massive amount of oil in the Dragon area wich happens to be in Icelandic waters
they say we can start pumping oil in 3-5 years
the amount of oil is estamated to be enough to run the Icelandic economy for over 400 years
that means we will be very rich
a bankrupt nation will have some trouble doing this obviously as its very expensive,
i have no idea if this has anything to do with anyting, its just funny how the timing fits
just before we will most likely become amazingly rich we almost go bankrupt, in a unbelievable timeframe and in a very unlikely chain of events.
In reply to Jan, what about this, which you do not quote?
“Darling: So the entitlements the people have, which I think is about £16,000, they will be paid that?
Mathiesen: Well, I hope that will be the case. I cannot visibly state that or guarantee that now”
He HOPES it will be the case. He CANNOT … guarantee it now!
A gauarantee is a guarantee is a guarantee. No wonder Britain froze the assets.
Jan. If you mean the letter linked below, no one has confirmed that it was the letter referred to in the transcript, or even that it really was sent by the Icelandic government to the UK one.
http://mbl.is/media/44/1044.pdf
John Freemen quotes the following as porving that that guarentee was worthless
“Darling: Do I understand that you guarantee the deposits of Icelandic depositors?
Mathiesen: Yes, we guarantee the deposits in the banks and branches here in Iceland.
Darling: But not the branches outside Iceland?
Mathiesen: No, not outside of what was already in the letter that we sent.
Darling: But is that not in breach of the EEA-treaty?
Mathiesen: No, we don’t think so and think this is actually in line with what other countries have been doing over recent days. ”
The letter that was referred to was the letter that said that they would guarantee the first £16,000 – the amount that was required under European law. What they were NOT guaranteeing was any amount above that. (In fact, when Ireland announced its unlimited guarantee, initially the British givernemnt condemned that as overkill and a market distortion).
Previously in the conversation Mathieson says he doesn’t know HOW he is going to meet that guarantee but that they are planning to do so and don’t want it hanging over them.
In my dealings with the Icelanders, that is symptomatic of their honesty: if they don’t know how, they won’t try and pretend.
……Unlike certain British politicians who try to use spin and deflect attetniton away from their own shortcomings.
There are two different and interrelated issues being discussed. One is the failure of Icelandic banks and its effects in the EU, namely the UK and the Netherlands. Here the EUR 20K guarantee applies and should be honoured by Iceland. The other far more important is what the Icelandic authorities allowed to happen in their drunken state fuelled by cheap credit and small town dreams of world conquest. The hangover is just beginning and will not be pretty: Iceland will have a huge foreign debt that will take decades to repay, in other words, its standard of living will go down substantially and the country will go back to fishing and sweater making.
Well done to Icelandic police, I wish they would apply the same approach in Britain!
In Britain police would have to worry about being sued because the intruder broke his finger nail while performing the stunt.
Oh, and very funny story about the Bonus flag :) . Have to try and find a picture on the internet.
Axel. That mention you make of the UK planning a move against KE in advance may well be correct and yet not mean that there was any plan to “attack” Kaupthing or steal assets.
The FSA would be expected to have plans in place. If laymen like me can see that the entire Icelandic financial system was in trouble at the start of October, then it would make sense for people in the FSA to be planning for a collapse.
As for the baseball bat, I agree. However it’s worth noting that the borrower has already beaten himself until he’s paralysed. If he’s refusing to pay back a fraction of what he owes, then he can’t expect anyone to lend him money for his medical bills. Luckily the UK government moved quickly to freeze assets over here, so I’d be surprised if the Icelandic government manages to wriggle out of the EEA guarantee.
I agree with Andrew and would just like to add: …a giant Ponzi scheme which was fully supported by the Icelandic government including Haarde…who is, believe it or not, still in ‘power’…
David I’m sorry nice try but that dog won’t hunt. Under the terms of the EEA the British government couldn’t stop any bank from an EEA country operating in Britain as long as they met the relevant criteria. Such as, just for a random example, a guarantee from the government of the bank’s home country to protect the first ~20k euro of each account in the event that the bank got into difficulties. Icesave displayed that guarantee prominently in its literature and on its website, proudly stating how safe any money invested therefore was. We now know that the whole Icesave enterprise was set up solely to rescue LB from a liquidity crisis in 2006, a fact that somehow escaped mention when peddling the accounts. Icesave account holders were simply the last victims of giant Ponzi scheme.
i hope iceland fights joining the eu. and fights the UK attempt to demonize the icelandic people further. what a joke. iceland isnt helping facilitate killing after killing in iraq – but britain is. yet its the uk that says iceland is terrorists. iceland took on too much financial risk. but so did every multinational bank that helped power their economic super growth over the last few years. risk and blame go hand in hand. theres always PUH-LENTY of both to go around. but to act as if the people of iceland signed up for all of this is bogus. this was clearly a group of people that made a bunch of institutionally memorized decisions that usually sought growth at any risk. it was an orgy on the un-maximized market of what a purchasing-powered iceland could mean for the whole of europe. they just so happened to do so when americas economy is starting to eat itself from the inside. so sorry iceland, bad timing. but its not even mostly your fault.
-american
Debt has been the cause of troubles in Iceland. More debt cannot possibly be the way out for Icelandic people. The leadership of the country says it wants to avoid going bankrupt. That may, on the other hand be the best solution for its people. The alternative is a kind of slavery to other countries that lend Iceland money. If you expect a higher return, you should expect more risk. The British Government failed by letting Icesave offer accounts to its people. The British Government is responsible, not the Icelandic people.
close to 4000 people protested today in front of the parliament building, someone decided to climb on top of it and raise a Bonus flag where the Icelandic flag usually is, the Bonus trademark is a pink pig, when he tryed to get down the police had taken the ladder he used and ignored him,
this made the crowd even angryer and people started throwing eggs tomatoes among other things at the building and some fights broke out, i think only one was arrested, this seems to be escalating
the police are now training a riot squad to beat down protesters, it seems that the government is going to try to stay in control by the use of violance and fear like is being done in UK
next thing you know people will be shot in the head at subway stations or held by police 48 hours without any given reason,
if the police will be used like that there will be a civil war here
endless amounts of sh*t seem to be coming up to the surface now as every one are pointing fingers
and to tell you the truth it looks to me like we are the ones beeing robbed,
for example the assets of LB were 2 times the debts
30. sept. 2008
assets were 4400b and debts 2200b
evidence now show that the British goverment had prepared the atack on KB a few days before it took place, this was discovered by the lawfirm who was hired to represent KB in court
to see this for what it really is you are just going to have to wait for a few more weeks
or months, what ever it takes
i have no confidence in the UK government
but i have full confidence in the British justice system,
Terry, if you need to vent of some rage, go to a football match, somehow it think you might enjoy that
Bromley, lets say you were a loanshark and you would hit someone who owed you money in the head with a baseball bat until he was paralized, it could possibly hurt your chances of ever getting payed,
“I do not believe that the IMF will be used in such political way”
In a later interview, Haarde added: “I also don’t believe that the earth is a sphere.”
APB says
“Lilja may be planting her winter garden im sure it is lovely, just like the food im baking every day for my kids and there friends. WE are getting on with living while all our money is being taken to ‘pay back’ and survive. not complaining as what has been done has been done!”
You display what seems to be the prevailing Icelandic attitude – we are getting on with living – planting winter gardens – and now baking cakes!
If your money is being taken to ‘pay back’ – it is not coming to the UK. The UK government is kindly refunding the savings guaranteed and reneged upon by your government. If your desire is to garden, and bake cakes, then Iceland should have avoided international banking
Very much agree with John. I worked in Iceland for sometime and now I am back Britain. When the crisis started I was sympathetic towards Iceland’s position. However, it very quickly became apparent that the Icelandic government wants to put all bad debts onto books of a couple of banks and keep one bank, i.e. Kaupfing afloat. This is why the British government froze Kaupfing’s assets.
The right thing for Iceland is to recognise that the finances were completely missmanaged and take on the great majority of the debt (I think at the moment the government does not want to admit to any debt).
Try staying humble instead of saying “not my fault, not my problem”. The sooner you do that the sooner you will have more bad debt written off.
In short to medium future you will have to accept that your standards of living will decrease drastically. You are not the first in this position and will not be the last.
On Nov 8, 2008, Terry said:
The supporters of the Icelandic position seem to be waining – have they like lilja gone to plant their winter gardens and forget the worries of the world!
whats the point of saying things over and over again and listning to ‘we want our money back’ over and over again?
maybe you would of got it allready if brown hadnt of seized and sold off assets… who knows?
it will all come out in the investigations. and yes we know our goverment and bankers and certain people should not be where they are or did what they did. we know that NOW.
dont throw stones!
Lilja may be planting her winter garden im sure it is lovely, just like the food im baking every day for my kids and there friends. WE are getting on with living while all our money is being taken to ‘pay back’ and survive. not complaining as what has been done has been done!
To follow up from what John said, it’s very important to note that the Icelandic portion of the compensation (if we’re just talking retail depositors 20k euro guarantee) is just that – 20k euros for each retail depositor. It’s not 100% of all deposits.
That means that the assets of the Icelandic banks would have to be massively devalued for Iceland not to be able to meet that. Those assets were purchased with the deposits of the retail AND corporations/institutions = a lot more than 20k euros x 400k savers.
Now I’d be very surprised if the UK loan offer 3 weeks ago wasn’t contingent on the payback of 100% of all UK deposits (retail or otherwise), so I can see why the Icelandic government might refuse that. Still, wherever Iceland gets its cash from, a good portion of that will have to be used to pay some guaranteed deposits (if only the Dutch ones).
To lilja,
In case you do check back here. We’ll have to disagree on the motivations of those involved, but I wish you all the best.
Fishy
There you go again – we need the money to save ourselves – and maybe then we will consider you.
How about saving us, and plant your Icelandic winter garden (as recommended by lilja) to then save yourselves?
Axel oh! Axel
Historical calculations relative to war reparations based upon weight of gold per head of population deflect from the point – ‘honour the savings guarantee’ – see, that’s not a difficult concept!
# john
i know the savers want their OWN money . But there is NO money to give them until we receive funds.Then if we return all savings to uk and Dutch there is almost no money left for Iceland. Truth is much more money is needed to sort out Icelands debt to savers and to save our own nation.
The supporters of the Icelandic position seem to be waining – have they like lilja gone to plant their winter gardens and forget the worries of the world!
“You British and Dutch savers dont think we in Iceland deserve IMF loans .But you DO want money from Iceland .Without IMF loans we have no money. Then when we receive the IMF money we should give it to Britain and Holland”
I’m afraid this attitude is why Iceland is getting such a bad name. British and Dutch savers don’t want “money from Iceland”. They want their OWN money which was deposited in an Icelandic bank for which the government gave a guarantee which has proved to be worthless. Banking is based on trust — if you don’t back up your guarantees nobody will trust you any more.
Things must be bad. Has the Ice News moderator left the country!
Axel:”what Britain is demanding from the Icelandic public
of 100k workers is 1.5 kg of gold per head, there are 303k Icelanders so its 4,5 to 5 kg of gold per worker,
there is a dispute about the amount of the compensation and it will go to court, do doubt
when Germany was forced to pay compensation after www1(world war one) the amount was 700 grams of gold per head, most of us know how that ended”
So your basic argument is, “we stole so much money from you we can’t be expected to pay it all back”.
Really, where do you think has the $50billion disappeared to if its not in Iceland?
# Paul said – “Personally, I think that individuals, banks and governments putting their savings away in Iceland have simply been foolish”
Effectively – you say I was foolish for not considering the Icelandic guarantee of my savings was a worthless declaration given by a bunch of charlatans.
IceSave marketed heavily in the UK, and whilst the returns offered were good – they were by no means unique. ICICI an Indian owned bank operating in the UK and fully covered by the UK guarantee – offered equal or better deposit returns. However, I still remember the Indian BCCI bank crash of 1991, which caused similar UK collateral damage to that of IceSave (see Icelanders – in matters of finance – memories are long).
It is true that I did not study the macroecomics of Iceland, before choosing IceSave. The guarantee looked good, and my reasoning perhaps nebulous – in that my perception of Iceland was that of an honourable little nation filled with a tenacious and clever population – part of the great solid dependable Germanic brotherhood. However, perhaps an appropriate comparison would be pre-unification East German economy and a Trabant standard banking system. East Germany resolved its problems by ridding itself of its leadership – perhaps that would be a good starting point for Iceland.
To Bromley 86
I’m not saying that Britain planned to put all the banks under from the beginning but once the opportunity came their way they put Kaupthing under and grabbed their assets instead of using the value of their assets while everything was up and running to pay back as much as possible. So instead now their assets are worthless to Kaupthing and have no value to be put towards lessening their debt. Then now the british can buy up the assets for pennies and then still demand all their money back.
Conspiracy? Possibly to have Iceland take up the EURO. By who? I’m not sure but it makes sense. Just as in USA the dollar will soon be worth nothing and then wait and see what will happen-possibly some kind of currency for that area similar to the EURO will be presented. This is my last posting as I am busy planting my winter garden as all icelanders should be doing right now and buy local and stop being so greedy I’m ashamed to say of my own people. The people of Iceland- or a big part of them-got so materialistic that they lost all connection to reality.Now all of a sudden they remember where they really live, their culture and each other.About time to start eating icelandic food again, support your own farmers and fisherman and help each other, families come together, money and things are not all in this world.Iceland will do just foine, they have all this renewable energy, can grow food all year round, plenty of fish if only it was not more expensive for icelanders to buy than it is in other countries. So ,gather round icelanders, remember your roots, take care of one another and the land and the planet. Everyone is forgetting in this global crisis that we were already facing a global planetary environmental crisis stemming from our greed and thoughtlessness and no regard for the earth we live on. So just in time this financial crisis to put us back to the simple ways that will be the only way to survive in the close future.
Only 100000 workers in Iceland ?
3000 workers without their jobs would be 570000 workers in Spain: equivalence. INCREDIBLE.
Situation is absolutely dramatic. I think, Europe can do more but, I am afraid that Iceland did not want to know nothing about Europe and E.U. for many years, and European diplomacy will make pay to Iceland high price.
When members of the Icelandic government say ‘ before adopt dollar or Norwegian kroner to Euro, this is not a very pleasant thing for Europe: there the scorn, the arrogance was seen. And, Europe does not forget these things.
Axel. Fair point about that other poster. Perhaps I should have said that AFAIK no reasonable person, no British newspaper and no UK government minister has called Icelanders, the Icelandic government or even the Icelandic companies involved, “terrorists”.
Of course there will be people, especially those not covered by a guarantee that’s going to be honoured, who are angry and lashing out. Just as, unless Iceland really is a paradise, there will be angry Icelanders doing the same on Icelandic-language boards. I’d apologise, but as it’s not me doing it it’d be pretty meaningless
As to the gold figures, I can’t comment on those as I haven’t seen the calculations. I would point out that such illustrations are usually made by people with an axe to grind, who often choose to ignore facts that don’t support their arguments. So in that particular case, I bet they didn’t allow for the sale of the banks’ assets to offset some of that debt.
Either way, if that’s the Icelandic government’s point then it would make sense to get it out in the open now rather than giving mixed messages about whether the EEA guarantee is going to be honoured. I’m not talking about negotiating via the press, but a simple statement totaling what the banks owed, what was covered by various guarantees and which gurantees the government is going to honour would be a good start.
So as i see this You British and Dutch savers dont think we in Iceland deserve IMF loans .But you DO want money from Iceland .Without IMF loans we have no money. Then when we receive the IMF money we should give it to Britain and Holland . Leaving us in Iceland with ….Yeah you guessed..NOTHING . oh my mistake more DEBT
It is with increasing incredulity that I observe the postings on this site, defending Iceland.
No, Concerned_IceSaver, it is not only their government living in a parallel universe – it would seem that a substantial proportion of citizens do also.
Icelands lack of contrition, dishonourable and illegal abrogation of its responsibilities is fuelling its well deserved pariah status. We see that this narcissistic little nation has tears only for itself. It whinges that the bully UK is obstructing IMF funds required to maintain bloated Icelandic lifestyles. Iceland contributes 0.06% of IMF funding whilst the UK contributes 4.86% – so after being mugged through the front door – why should we shovel UK money through Icelands back door?
Any sympathy I had for Iceland has been replaced by anger. Reparation is no longer sufficient. A lesson is needed.
Iceland may hope that the storm will ‘blow- over’ – normality return, and the world forget its dishonesty, selfishness and ‘house of cards’ economy’…….We shall see.
Some of the comments here categorically blaming the Icelanders for what happened are thoroughly unfair (I’m looking at some of the Dutch comments). Mistakes have been made on several levels and in all countries involved, but only by those directly involved. Personally, I think that individuals, banks and governments putting their savings away in Iceland have simply been foolish (and the latter categories irresponsible) to do so. The króna has consistently been unstable and subject to enormous inflation over the past decades, hence the 18% domestic interest rate. Anyone who’s lost money sending their savings off to Iceland has him/herself to thank for it (though the Dutch National Bank should have known better than to declare Landsbanki safe). I’ve closely followed the debate in the Dutch media and I’ve never yet heard anyone express this view.
Sure, the Icelandic government should have scrutinised Icelandic banking practices more closely, and I’m sure they’ve learned their lesson, but this blame-game is far too one-sided. Grow up, world. Count your losses and do not stop respecting Iceland as the worthy international partner it is.
Bromley86
“The sooner you guys get over the terrorist thing, the better. It is a label that you’re applying to yourself as no one else thinks you’re terrorists”.
Bromley, read Concerned_IceSavers post
what Britain is demanding from the Icelandic public
of 100k workers is 1.5 kg of gold per head, there are 303k Icelanders so its 4,5 to 5 kg of gold per worker,
there is a dispute about the amount of the compensation and it will go to court, do doubt
when Germany was forced to pay compensation after www1(world war one) the amount was 700 grams of gold per head, most of us know how that ended
its obvious to any thinking person that this is impossible, if IMF will refuse the loan unless we pay this amount its quite simple how this will turn out,
some people seem to have the impression that people here in Iceland hate the British public
thats not the case, far from it,
i think you need to replace brown and darling
i hope we will get the loan from IMF, at the end of last month 3000 people lost their jobs, i hate to think what will happen at he end of this month if the loan is not approved,
Poland has decided to give Iceland 200m usd loan
Polish FM said it was to show moral support, like Faroe islands and Greenland, Norway have given us a loan, there are some interesting times ahead
regarding legal matters, financial and political
about IMF i would say its about 50/50 chance,
it depends on the level of British influence in IMF
how many they can convince or bend to help them
I believe that this will be a chance for us to rebuild or society from ground up and create a system so perfect that any other nation would want to adopt it for them selves
without rotten politcs, holes for bankers to exploit both foreign and domestic, more use of green energy, we can run the whole country on it if we wanted, so many things we can do,
i have never seen people so angry before
Icelanders are usually icecool but its like a volcano erupted
The vikings were always good at pillaging those Anglo-Saxons and returning to their beer halls with the plunder :).
Seriously no one considered that putting money into a bank was high – risk. Shares are a different matter – but not savings accounts. This was all sparked off by the Icelandic government not accepting it had a moral obligation to pay back the savers in a Icelandic bank.
I do wonder whether the Icelandic government is living in a parallel universe, their statements indicate they’re in complete denial. In their world, fulfilling their legal obligations are not their concern and the savers of IceSave (in England and Netherlands) can simply go to hell.
However, in flagrant disregard of their legal obligations they expect the world community to show sympathy and come to their aid. Well they would if Iceland would stand up and pay it’s debts. Their refusal to do so justifies the British government’s action, in labeling Iceland as a terrorist state.
Oh rather financial terrorists, you guys could teach Al Quaeda and Bin Laden a thing or two.
Well done, fame at last for cold, barren, useless Iceland. Your illegal actions will never be forgotten.
Hey, icelanders!!!
Watch out!!!
I am a witness to tel the world the crimes of IMF in africa and esia.
Icelanders , never take off your dress for evil and cruel IMF,bunch of haynas.You rather bow down for your nordic friends and stay in trouble for some time .otherwise iceland will be a colony, and your children will pay the prise.
GOD BLESS ICELAND!!
“Anne, joep and paul should really stop listning to rumours and lies coming from the british press.”
As apposed to the rumours and lies comming from the Icelandic press (and indeed government)? The sooner you guys get over the terrorist thing, the better. It is a label that you’re applying to yourself as no one else thinks you’re terrorists.
Ditto to lilja. So Britain exposed itself to billions of pounds of loss to the taxpayer so it could buy assets on the cheap? Well, if you want to believe conspiracy theories, then I can’t deny that someone will likely get a good deal out of the purchase of Icelandic-owned assets. Nothing I will say will convince you that this wasn’t by design. Probably not even if I mention that Glitnir and Landsbanki went under with no help from the UK government and, whatever you might want to believe, Kaupthing was going the same way.
That said, it’s insane to wish financial doom on Iceland. From a human perspective it’s sick and from a financial perspective it’s mad – poor people can’t pay you anything.
@anne
>Iceland should be one big prison?
Lock me up, NOW!
Henk
Believe me the IMF will do exactly what they want, depending on what it is they want.
Britain did this on purpose so they could then buy up the assets the icelandic bank had in Britain for pennies.Their assets had become too big and Britain did not like it. Also, someone out there is trying to get Iceland to adapt the EURO because they had not done so yet. Good job! What goes around comes around!
Anne, joep and paul should really stop listning to rumours and lies coming from the british press.
WELL,I THINK ITS GONA BE FUNNY,ALLREADY LOSE WORK AND FOR OTHER COUNTRYS THEY WANT THAT ICELAND GO TO FINACIAL MELTDOWN,NICE FOR THE KIDS,FOR WE THAT ARE STUCK IN ICELAND,HOPE FOR THE IMF RESCUE,WELL I THINK THAT MANY PEOPLE DONT NOW WATH IS HAPENING HERE….OPS I FORGOT WE ARE THE T WORD BECOUSE THE BANKS.
Extract from a conversation between the British Chancellor and an Icelandic Minister:
“Darling: What about the depositors you have got who have got deposits in London branches?
Mathiesen: We have the insurance fund according to the Directive and how that works is explained in this letter and the pledge of support from the government to the fund.
Darling: So the entitlements the people have, which I think is about £16,000, they will be paid that?
Mathiesen: Well, I hope that will be the case. I cannot visibly state that or guarantee that now, but we are certainly working to solve this issue. This is something we really don’t want to have hanging over us.
Darling: People are asking us already, what is happening there? When will you work that through?
Mathiesen: Well, I really can’t say. But I think it is the best thing that the FSA be in close touch with the FME about this to see how the timeline works out in this.
Darling: Do I understand that you guarantee the deposits of Icelandic depositors?
Mathiesen: Yes, we guarantee the deposits in the banks and branches here in Iceland.
Darling: But not the branches outside Iceland?
Mathiesen: No, not outside of what was already in the letter that we sent.
Darling: But is that not in breach of the EEA-treaty?
Mathiesen: No, we don’t think so and think this is actually in line with what other countries have been doing over recent days. ”
So the guarantee was worthless.
yes,in a point of view you both are correct,but nobody got the right to treat we as terrorists,we as well work hard and we had money in icesave too.
every body news that icesave was a highrisk,and even whith that it was one of the best saving baks reported neary this year.now we that live in iceland whith this problem and we all are losing jobs,its a meltdown here and becouse this we all are terrorists.please wakeup or you are not human.
I repeat,it was on a contract HI RISK LEVEL
Sorry Mr Haarde, as a sovereign country is it your duty to regulate companies based in your jurisdiction. You were happy to reap the benefits of, and take credit for the boom – now you must face up to the responsibility of the bust. I know what a proud, and somewhat nationalistic, country Iceland is. It is hard to accept you are basically bankrupt – but the sooner you do and start working with other countries to get out of this hole the better.
Please, icelanders have not stolen but private company hungry of money. Please!
Is responsible the state, the government? Justice will say.
Please, icelanders are not thieves.
Iceland has correctly been clasified as a terrorist country by the british government. Iceland has willingly spread lies about the financial position of their banks, has willingly stolen billions of euros from hardworking people and mr Haarde is very clear about the fact that Iceland has never intended to pay back the money Iceland has stolen (as is obvious with criminals). Iceland should be left to solve their own problems, instead of giving them billions of dollars to start their scam all over again
sorry for iceland, you have stolen 2 billion euro’s from the netherlands. your country should be one big prison, instead you ask the imf for money, and you want te become part of the eu?
wake up iceland.